


Seal & Wilderness

by BlueSapphire718



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Original Character-centric, Plot Twists
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-28
Updated: 2018-04-20
Packaged: 2019-04-13 22:40:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14122371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueSapphire718/pseuds/BlueSapphire718
Summary: Being one of the last of his mother’s clan and member of his father’s currently hidden away clan, Natsuki wants to explore the world and figure out the secrets of his father’s clan while solving the myths and legends of the shinobi world.Cheerful and yet wild, Kazuo is just bored, before he decided to go and see the whole world with his own eyes, despite his parents’ disappearance into the world due to their own heritage and culture.Their fates intertwine with each other, and with other fates of different shinobi in the world. And ripples are about to be unleashed by seals and wilderness, whether fate likes it or not.





	1. Prologue (I)

**Author's Note:**

> Naruto doesn’t belong to me.
> 
> Plot and other characters belong to me.

There was just this tiny curiosity sparking inside him every time he watched his mother draw black lines, circles, and squiggles on that piece of paper behind the door through the crack. It was drawn with grace and power, certainty and hope. The concentration in his mother’s eyes made him gap in awe as she continued to draw.

And then when she sealed it off with a curve of her brush into the air, purple light had shone with such brightness, before it toned down, settling with a faint glow of the purple it once shown. His mother had quickly pushed in a few thing to it, and poof! It was gone.

That’s what drawn Natsuki first to seals.

Uzumaki-Gesen Natsuki had just finished watching his mother finish another seal when he heard his mother call out to him, her voice holding warmth and love inside when she did. “Natsuki, what are you doing behind the door? Aren’t you tired from standing?”

He blushed a little to be caught, before he opened the door just enough for him to sneak through it and walked to his mother. Aya chuckled at his behaviour, before patting to the floor next to her. “Come and sit, Natsuki.”

Natsuki obeyed his mother, sitting down next to her while observing her drawings of the lines and circles and the squiggles. It looked rather ridiculous, to his child eyes. Was it a drawing of some sort? Or was it those jutsus that his father performed outside when he had time off his work?

So he asked, “Mama, what are you drawing?”

She hummed, finishing up another drawing with a flick of her wrist and the purple light glowed with power before it settled down. “A seal.”

“A seal?” he echoed, tilting his head in confusion. Natsuki often heard Aya and his father argue about something, that he heard snippets of “seals”, “techniques” and “he must learn”. Not that he understood it right now, but he was honestly just curious. “What’s a seal, mama?”

Aya paused thoughtfully, her brush in the air as she searched for an answer. “A seal is something that you can seal something in,” she began hesitantly, looking at her son and placing down her brush. “But in my personal opinion, you can create anything you want, from creating an explosion tag to an elemental matrix–“

“Really?!” Natsuki shouted immediately, standing up in excitement. He then realized that he was interrupting his mother, and Natsuki sheepishly sat down again, his eyes gleaming with interest in the topic, particularly _explosions_. “Sorry, mama…”

Aya laughed, a bright sound in the dull room they were in. “It’s fine, dearie, it’s just that I didn’t know you wanted to learn this..”

He piped up at that, eyes shining. He can learn it. “I can learn it?”

“Of course!” his mother exclaimed, a smile reaching her face. Natsuki liked that smile on her face. “It’s part of our heritage of the Uzumaki Clan!”

“Uzumaki Clan….?” His mother had a Clan? That probably explained why she was very serious about teaching him about sealing, but Natsuki didn’t care right now. He was going to learn sealing! And learn how to make _explosions_!

“Ah, I forgot, you don’t know about that yet….”

“Forgot about what?” came his father’s reply, footsteps echoing closer and a man entered through the door.

He smiled brightly at Takumi. “I’m going to learn sealing!” he announced to him, grabbing his mother’s hand. “And make _explosions_!”

The woman made a quick glare to Takumi, too quick for little Natsuki’s eye to catch, but he was too busy celebrating that he was about to learn sealing. His father’s dark grey eyes gleamed. “Then he can start learning the ways of the Gesen Clan.”

“Are….” Aya struggled to find words. “... You certain about that?”

“Yes, I am,” Takumi replied curtly, before sending a fond smile to his son. “If he’s ready to learn about sealing, I guarantee that he’s ready to copy.”

Natsuki heard the last words, before he turned to his parents. “Copy?” he finally echoed after a long silence of them all having a staring contest.

“........ We should probably teach him by now.”

“Perhaps,” agreed his mother, slowly going back to the seal. Natsuki only tilted his little head curiously at them, before he went back to watching his mother make those seals of delicate and hard work while his father _decided to cook aGAIN, oh Sage, bad sign if he COOKED–_

“Gesen Takumi. Put that ladle down.”

At least his mother had common sense in never allowing his father to cook.

 

* * *

 

The wonders of mythology.

One famous myth was the Sage of Six Paths, who was the eldest son of Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, who used the Ten-Tailed Beast, Juubi, chakra to divide it into nine different chakra beings. They became known as the Tailed Beasts, and were told that one will bring them all together, and show them what true power was.

Another myth about the Sage was about choosing his successor. Ōtsutsuki Ashura was chosen instead of his elder brother, Indra, causing the latter to rampage and swore to taken down ninshū. It was an interesting myth to listen to.

A famous legend that his mother told him was about Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama. The first founders of Konohagakure no Sato, they were the first ones to establish the village system. However, Madara was convinced that the Senju was going to take over them, tried to kill Hashirama, and battled Hashirama at the Valley of the End and–

Natsuki never heard the end of that legend.

Aya was often too busy making seals and teaching him the theory behind it while Takumi went out as early as dawn and returned home late in the evening. They now rarely gave time to teach him much anymore, so he resolved to read it in the scrolls and books his father often returned with.

Taking a scroll from his father’s office was an easy task, but reading it was difficult. He did not understand those squiggles and curves they call words. They looked like miniature drawing that represent something, and he hated how he didn’t understand a single thing of what people decided to call words when they were just curves and scribbles!

Seriously, how? How can they read this stuff?

So when Natsuki finally told his mother about the problem of reading his father’s scrolls, she had laughed when he did so, making him pout at her. That led to Aya ruffling his hair and a promise to teach him how to read and write. Then she forced him to help her make seals.

And so began his lessons in reading and writing. Natsuki became fascinated and enchanted by those words, and began reading his father’s scrolls, being interested in what his father brought home everyday. He grabbed the one on top of the pile and read the title, pausing at the sight of it.

_The Battle in the Valley of the End._

Wasn’t the Valley of the End where Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama had their final battle before Hashirama killed Madara? Huh. He never knew his father was interested in such things like that. All Natsuki remembered about his father was that he loved to _cook those disgusting meals_ , and teaching him about the traditions of the Gesen Clan.

Natsuki heard it so many times from Aya that he could recall every word that she spoke, but she never told him the ending of that story. She would often trail off after they get to the part where Hashirama killed Madara, but he never questioned it, seeing his mother’s troubled gaze.

But now….

Now he had the answers to them, the answer to his mother’s silence. Now he can read what happened after their battle. Now he would see why his mother was so hesitant in telling him the end. Natsuki slowly unraveled the scroll to the first sentence. His heart nearly stopped when he read it.

_If you are currently reading this scroll, I advise you to stop reading this and put it down, as this information is something that cannot go out into the world. If you do continue to read this, please be ready to run._

Well, Sage, Natsuki wasn’t sure to make of this. Why was it warning him to stop reading it? If he did continue to read it, why would it tell him to run after he read this? Questions swarmed his mind like bees in a hive, and Natsuki didn’t like it. Not one bit.

He continued to unravel the scroll and read the contents, his breaths stuttering and shuddering when he read the author’s recounting of the famous legend and the author’s observations of Madara’s corpse. Of course, this raised the question of _Why the hell is this author obsessed with Madara’s corpse? Is he or her in love with him? And how the hell does this author even know how Uchiha Madara looks like?!_

Okay, that was disgusting. And creepy. Natsuki shuddered at the words of very, very close observations of Madara’s corpse, half of him wanting to put the scroll down and search for something else to read and the other half of him wanting to continue reading. So he continued reading.

When Natsuki reached the end of the scroll, he was mildly disgusted and creeped out by the clear observations that the author made and concluded. It was not everyday he would read someone’s books full of creepiness. A shiver went down his spine as he read the last words.

_Madara’s corpse, as I observed, felt much too fake. Stealing few strands of hair, I looked into the blood, and it went beyond my thoughts. The blood was similar to Madara’s blood, but it’s not at the same time. It is not possible, but I dare say… Uchiha Madara is alive._

Alive.

_Uchiha Madara was alive._

That… That was not a good thought. Or theory. Or anything logical about it. Uchiha Madara was _dead_. Gone. Into the unknown. Not _alive_. Breathing. _Breathing the same air as them all_ – It just wasn’t possible. There was no way that he was alive–

Then another idea sparked inside his mind. If the legend of Uchiha Madara being dead was false, he mused, then maybe there’s a chance that other legends and myths told to him were false, too. There was a slight chance that he might be able to solve the mysteries that always shrouded the world.

Natsuki grinned with a sly canine smile of a fox.

Now _that’s_ something he can look forward to when he was older.

 

* * *

 

“Harder!” his father howled at him, as Natsuki swung his right foot into his father’s clone’s side. The clone blocked it with its’ arm, before flipping over Natsuki to dodge a chakra-enforced punch. He hissed at the hand chop to his arm, ducking down to dodge the kick towards him, rolling on the ground until he quickly stood on his feet.

The clone launched itself at him, Natsuki blocking a punch, sweeping his legs under the clone’s feet. It dodged, closing its’ eyes, before said closed eyes soon opened to reveal black. Pitch black as the Uchiha’s famous black eyes, with a strange symbol of a white circle with a dot of the same colour in it, but he paid no heed to it. He bit his lip, his eyes darting from left to right as he analyzed his situation.

Not good.

Especially if Takumi’s clone opened the eyes.

Natsuki quickly formed hand seals, before putting his hands in a tiger seal and he shouted, “Kāton : Fox Fire!”

Ten small fireballs appeared around him in a circle, glimmering with a glow of dark orange and light yellow, flames flickering in the air, as Natsuki moved his arms and swung them forward and two fireballs shot themselves at the clone.

It dodged and grunted, before dodging more of Natsuki’s fireballs, taking one or two hits with the flames. Takumi nodded in approval at his son’s attack, as the clone slammed down his hands after an end of a snake seal. “Dōton : Earth Wave Jutsu!”

The ground slowly began to shake, before moving in sync with itself, in the motions of waves, moving up and down as it did so. Natsuki yelped with shock, eyes widening in surprise, before unyielding steel replaced itself in his eyes, with the will to defeat his father’s clone.

Time for a new trick his mother taught him.

His hands quickly performed the necessary hand seals, ending with a ram seal. He held out his left hand and gripped it with his right. “Raiton : Lightning Beast!”

Blue electricity appeared from his hand as a shape of a hound took place in front of him and it howled, abruptly charging towards the clone. Takumi and his clone’s eyes widened, as the hound continued to charge and Natsuki began to control the movements, zigzagging it when possible when the clone tried to stop it with a Dōton jutsu, even when he knew that lightning would destroy earth.

That was one of the lessons Aya gave him when instructing him in the chakra affinity she had within her. And that lesson paid off when he finally hit the clone with the beast of lightning.

It grunted in pain when the lightning coursed through it when the beast bit him, and disappeared in a puff of smoke, chakra depleted.

“Good job!” His father proclaimed, walking over to his son and ruffled his hair.

“Tou-san, I beaten your clone,” Natsuki grumbled, plodding down to sit in the ground, a sour gaze in his look as he glared at his father with it. “I didn’t beat you.”

“You technically did,” he corrected, chuckling, “and I think you’re ready to learn the Gesen Clan techniques.”

Natsuki’s head shot up and he was up on his feet in a second, dark grey eyes gleaming. “Really?” he asked, a small pure smile spreading across his features, not like those sly smiles he often had on these days. “You think I’m ready?”

“Yes, I do.” Takumi gestured to him to come closer and sat on the ground across from him, his expression stifling into a permanent blank face. “Have you noticed what “Gesen” translate itself to?”

He paused, considering the words, before he answered hesitantly. “No….”

“It means “A Thousand Techniques”, and it means we copy.....”

 

* * *

 

Nine years after he read that scroll.

Nine years after he shoved the scroll away in his belongings.

Nine years since he forgotten the warning that the scroll had given him.

And nine was a bad luck number, too, goddammit.

Natsuki blankly stared at the paper in his hand, rereading the contents in it over and over again, just to make sure it wasn’t his mind playing tricks on him. His breaths turned into stuttering gasps and shuddering sobs when his eyes trailed on the sentence that nearly stopped him from moving.

_Your mother and father are dead._

_Dead._

They weren’t coming back.

Natsuki gritted his teeth as he read the rest of the contents. It was said that his mother and father were travelling back to home when they were attacked by some unknown force, and killed during the process. The astonishing thing was that the force didn’t take any of their belongings.

His sharp, dark grey eyes swept over the said belongings, a few bloodied, and a few not. He better get to sorting the things out, before evening. His shoulders slightly sagged as he began to sort it out, while remembering why his parents went to the nearby village.

Aya wanted to get some new chakra paper and brushes for herself and Natsuki, since their little village didn’t have any, and Takumi agreed, wanting to get something for Natsuki because his birthday was coming up. Not that he knew what his old man was getting him.

Natsuki’s fingers trailed over the new chakra paper and brushes that laid in the trunk, before they traced the delicate curves and spins of the seals on them. His mother’s work, he was pretty sure, that no one would steal the contents inside them. He opened them, before few things poofed out.

His eyes widened at the sight of new clothing, weapons, books, and _Oh Sage, a sword, tou-san actually got a sword with chakra-enforced seals and seals to contain affinities_ for him.

Water started to blur his sight, before Natsuki wiped away the tears that were about to be unleashed and started to gather his things. Better to do what he wanted to do for years than stay in the house where no one was there to stay with him.

After grabbing a few sealing scrolls and replacing his current clothing, Natsuki quickly sealed away the many things that he wanted and needed to bring with him. He paused at the sight of two pendants in his mother’s trunk, before he grabbed it. A shape of a square held the symbol of the Uzumaki Clan on the front and the Gesen Clan’s symbol behind. The other had a small crystal hung on the string, red sparkling in the sun.

A smile was wrung from him before tears slowly began to fall freely from his eyes, before he began to cry, crying for his parents’ _death_ , crying for his _stupidity_ for reading that scroll, crying for _comfort_.

That would be the last time he would cry before a few years later.


	2. Prologue (II)

The scent of prey entered his nostrils, making his sharp red eyes turn to his nearby companion, a sleek dark brown wolf as tall as him. The wolf flicked its’ tail as a signal, and shadows moved on its’ own, hidden behind the trees’ darkness, heading to their target.

A herd of deers grazed at the field of grass near the forest, one occasionally lifting its’ head to gaze into the forest with steadfast black eyes, before lowering its’ head to continue grazing. Not that he cared, his eyes set on one near him.

Being one who actually preferred to rely on his pack’s backup, his eyes suddenly flashed yellow before he howled into the air, “GO!!!!!”

That scrambled the pack of wolves into action, jumping out of the trees’ cover, and making the deers’ heads shoot up and they scattered. But Kazuo’s gaze only held one in his mind, and that was the one who kept on watching the trees.

It would make good meat since it was large, and his mother and father wouldn’t mind eating this. After all, all they have eaten in a while was the occasional rabbits, birds, squirrels, and much more rarely, a bear. And Kazuo wasn’t about to waste the opportunity to eat a _deer_.

He aimed his spear and threw it with such deadly accuracy, hitting the target head on. The deer yelped in pain and went down, its’ feet buckling underneath it as the wolves near him pounced on it, wrestling it down with a flurry of teeth and claws.

Araya Kazuo whistled with glee, his lips twisting into a canine smirk worthy of the wolves. They parted from the deer, tongues lopsided as they watched him approach the deer and poke it. It didn’t answer to the touch, the cooling down body still warm from the attack.

Kneeling down on his knees, he clapped twice to it, placed his hands flat against each other, and bowed his head. “Thank you for sacrificing your life to feed us,” he murmured to it quietly, before he stood up and nodded to the wolves near him to pick it up, but not before grabbing his spear.

He looked to the other side of the field and saw the rest of the wolves crowded around another deer, making him wander over to peer at what they were looking at. Which, seemingly, was not good. “What’s going on?” he asked, tilting his head at them.

“Pup,” one of the wolves, Yuki, growled. The pure white she-wolf nodded to the deer, her dark eyes glaring at it, a smouldering look to it. Perhaps it was best to stand back a little from her. Kazuo walked back a little, other wolves copying him while Yuki didn’t pay attention. “It has a snake scent to it.”

Oh. _Oh_. Oh, Sage.

Snakes.

Snakes, to his pack, were _Bad signs, bad signs, screwed, screwed, back away from that deer right now and immediately and Oh Sage, the deer’s guts are moving with that flash of shiny silver in it, go abort, abort, abort, abORT, leAVE THis pLACe–_

Kazuo threw the spear at the dead corpse of the deer in sheer panic, running backwards when he did so. The wolves followed him, surrounding him in a protective matter when a mass of silver snakes burst away from the deer’s guts and slithered away.

There were reasons why he hated snakes, and this was one of them. And watching them covered in deer blood and guts and livers was not going to help him. Kazuo hunched over, trying to calm his breathing. Yuki pressed against him, her soft fur tickling him as he continued to breath.

The other wolves paced around them, some impatiently, some bored and the rest worried. Damn the snakes here and their habits of _Creeping into animal bodies and scaring the crap out of us just for the joy of it, just why–_ and their creepiness.

Kazuo shook his head to clear himself of his thoughts and looked over to Yuki and the pack of the wolves with him. His pack of wolves. “Come on,” he said gruffly, returning to the deer he had struck down and the other wolves.

“Let’s go home.”

 

* * *

 

If having parents who won’t help you walk were weird, get a load of Kazuo’s parents. They fawned over him ever since he was born, and then decided to kick him out of the house to stay with the pack of wolves near them for a couple of weeks when he was a three-year-old.

Kazuo’s only learnt lessons from this was learning how to suckle from a she-wolf’s stomach for milk, and how to play catch with the other wolf pups. That’s practically all he learnt during those two weeks his parents kicked him out for. Not that he understood his parents’ minds.

It was absolutely ridiculous.

Kazuo stared blankly at the new clothing his parents got him and demanded, “What. Is. This?” He held up a green onesie. He already didn’t like it, and that smell of this _thing_ was disgusting and hurting his poor sensitive nose. His mother didn’t realize it.

Araya Chouko beamed at her son, seemingly squealing internally. He groaned. “You see, Kazuo,” she began earnestly, the smile never leaving her face. “We went to the nearby village today– you know, the one called Konohagakure no Sato?– and there was this lovely young boy that I decided to help, and in return, I got that spandex, just for you! He said it would help your Youth!”

He stared at her in disbelief. “.... Kaa-san, really? And _why were you helping him in the first place? And how did you even get that in your words with youth–_?”

She beamed another smile. Kazuo really, really wanted to wipe that smile off her face. Why couldn’t she see that this onesie or whatever it was called again was hideous and horrendous and never in his years would he wear it. _Never_.

“He was searching for his apparent Eternal Rival and said it was to defeat “his cool and hip self” and to help with the “Springtime of his Youth”. So I decided to help him and got it in return after we found that Eternal Rival of his!”

As much as Kazuo loved his mother and hated to admit it, his mother was _Insane and crazy, and gEt thAT THIng AWAy fROM ME_ – and chasing him to get him into _The thing of horror, SAGE, GET THAT AWAY FROM ME, MOM–_

Soon enough, he was stuck inside the onesie and his mother cooed at him. He was pathetic if he couldn’t escape his own mother. “Awwww! Kazuo, you look adorable!”

Kazuo looked down at himself. Green, green, and _green_ with an orange belt around him and it was incredibly _tight_ and not helping him right now. He deadpanned at his mother’s expression. “Define adorable.”

“Adorableness!”

“..... No. No. _No_. I am _not_ adorable.”

His mother really had no common sense.

 

* * *

 

Finding a really strange thing in the forest today, Kazuo decided to settle down in his room and puzzled over the thing. It was rather thick, with a picture and a bunch of scribbles on top that he couldn’t define. And when he opened it, rectangular sized white leaves would flutter to one side and he could see much more scribbles on it.

Not that he understood what it was saying.

Kazuo didn’t want to show his mother in case she took it away from him, so he decided to take it his pack. Most wolves looked at it and sniffed at it, pawed it to see if it was dangerous or not, before they backed off. That lasted for several minutes before Yuki took a look at it and recognition lightened in her eyes.

“That’s called a book,” she told him after taking a look at it. She took another sniff. “And it’s an old scent, belonging to your father. And thinking back, it’s been several months since his leave.”

“But he went to Kirigakure no Sato!” Kazuo protested to her, picking up the book from the ground and brushed off all the dirt and dust on it. “And it takes a long time to travel by foot there.”

“He left the book behind,” Yuki said curtly, shaking her head at him. “And left you behind.”

“T-Tou-san wouldn’t…..” But Kazuo knew. He knew the truth. His parents were wild, and part of the wilderness. They would drift off to go somewhere else, leaving him behind to fend for himself. That was the way of his family for generations. Of course they would leave.

Yuki crouched down on her paws and looked at him. “Cub, we’re always here for you…”

“I-I know….” A wild look then entered his eyes as he looked at Yuki. “And I’m going to leave here,” he added.

Surprise sprung from Yuki’s eyes and she yelped in shock, black eyes widening at him. Not that Kazuo cared at the moment, but Yuki was the only one there for his comfort. “What?! Leave? Are you insane? You’re only 14 years old, for the Sage’s sake!”

“And I’m going to explore the world!”

And that was the day he was officially alone.


	3. Chapter 1 – Punch to the Nose

Frowning at the stall owner, Natsuki placed his hands on his hips and frowned. This was the _third_ time of the _day_ today that someone decided to stop him from continuing with his things by _doing things to him_. Since when the fucking hell was it a good idea to stop and listen to a stranger?

“What do you need?” he snapped, his eyes twitching from annoyance. The stall owner gulped at his visible annoyance and his concealed killing intent. Whoops, he didn’t realize that he was releasing some, but who cared? “Well?” he asked.

“I-I thought that y-you’re…..”

“A woman?” he snorted, before pointing a finger at him, jabbing his finger at him as he did so. “Yeah, I get that a lot. Now leave me alone, you bastard, and never _grope my ass_ again, or I’ll rip your fucking liver out and make sure you eat it while you burn slowly to death.”

The stall owner gulped much more visibly, much to his satisfaction, and turned to tend to his long line of angry customers. Natsuki snorted. The man deserved it, but who was he to blame? Everyone he met assumed that he was a female because of his feminine face and long hair and it annoyed him to the depths of hell.

But does he care? Nope, not one single bit. Natsuki was currently purchasing supplies to last him for the next several weeks, considering that he was planning to head to Konohagakure no Sato to get books, research some things there and then head over to the Fire Temple to solve the legend of Tengu and Yamabushi teaching the arts of Ninjutsu to humans.

Natsuki heard of the legend a few times, but wasn’t sure if it was possible. After all, it was the Sage of Six Paths who taught his sons and them humans ninshū, before Indra first used ninshū in a battle, starting the first Ninjutsu. It was afterwards when humans taught themselves how to use Ninjutsu.

Not that it mattered right now.

He needed to get supplies so that he could survive the next few days in the woods before he would get to Konohagakure to research the legend for a week or so and head off to the Fire Temple. Though he really didn’t want to get roped into worshipping someone they valued there.

Just _no_.

Natsuki looked at the sky, trying to determine the time. Around sunset, due to the now merging colours of orange and pink and purple. He still had plenty of time before heading to the nearby inn and go to the _onsen_ they had. Maybe he can finally get some relaxation–

His thoughts were interrupted when he bumped into someone, stepping back, startled, before he tripped over a rock and fell backwards afterwards. Dark grey eyes squeezed shut because _Oh no, I’m going to get a head split, am I?_ –

Natsuki never felt the ground on his back.

Cracking open his eyes, he was sudden very much aware of a hand on his back, which was connected to an _arm_ , which was connected to a _person_ . Red eyes stared back at him, blinking in confusion, before a rich and warm voice reached his ears, a tone of laughter in his voice. Oh, _oh_ , _damn_ it _all_!

Then he realized that the man’s face much was very, very close to his face, explaining why his eyes seemed so close and his voice near him. And then he felt his face burn when he heard the words out of the man’s moving lips that were _Too close, too close, stay away from me, abort, abort, abORT–_

“Sorry, _hime_ , I wasn’t watching where I was standing.”

He couldn’t help it anymore.

Natsuki responded with a punch to his nose.

 

* * *

 

Holding a bloodied nose with his hand, Kazuo had accidentally dropped the red-haired woman and she had scrambled off, not before giving a kick or two to send him to the ground. Not that he really cared, considering that he was still staring after the direction she had left in.

Bystanders awkwardly stared at him before shuffling away, the ones with children covering their children’s eyes and continued on with their daily lives. Kazuo did not even cared about that, as he was still staring in that direction.

That woman had beautiful red hair and sharp dark grey eyes that reminded him of his father’s tales of being separated from a Clan centuries ago. Dark grey eyes from one of the Clans that were hidden away. It was funny, really. And the red hair was probably from the nearly extinct Uzumaki Clan. Who else had red hair?

He chuckled darkly as he stood up from the ground, the nosebleed stopping by then, and quickly wiped the dust off his clothes. He was going to get revenge on that woman if that was the last thing he would do.

Kazuo shrugged it off, before heading to the inn. At least there he would be able to go rest and actually see if there were any books around the village. If not, he’d have to head to Konohagakure no Sato for the books, and he really needed ones from the famous Icha Icha series.

All the reviews he saw about it was….. Pretty negative.

He never actually read the series, and he was honestly curious why people kept criticizing it when they never read it before. Kazuo quickly picked up his pace and continued his way to the inn, marking out his journey for the next week or so after a night at the inn. He walked in….

And nearly bumped into _Oh, it’s the pretty woman again, I wonder if she’ll allow me to take her out on a date–_ who whipped around with a snarl when he touched her shoulder. Then her eyes flickered with surprise, before it vanished into thin air.

Kazuo had expected a light and gentle voice– “The hell, asshole?” a rough voice came out, instead of the light and gentle voice he was just imagining. “Are you some kind of stalker, like you were following me here?”

 _Wait. Wait. Wait. Back up a bit, just back up_ , his mind shrieked. _Isn’t she a woman?_

His mind raced with a thousand questions and answers, but– “My apologies,” Kazuo said instead, stepping back a bit. “I thought you were someone I knew.” _I thought you were a_ woman _._

The woman– _Err_ , man snorted, and informed him rather dryly, “Don’t bother with that look, asshole, I’ve already been stopped three times today _just_ because they thought I was a woman. And all of them sported the same look as you when they realized that.”

“Oh.” His mind whirled as he watched the woman– _Man_ , he corrected himself, as he left in another direction. Kazuo stared after him, before he realized that other occupants of the lobby he was in, some of the males sending him death glares and middle fingers, while others began taking out their kunai and weapons.

Huh, he wondered what their problem was.

He wasn’t even a danger….. Right? Right?

Kazuo immediately shrugged off the feeling that there was something wrong, before asking for a room. After few questions, exchanges of ryo and a key, he found himself standing in front of the room and pushed open the wooden door after he pushed the key in. He gazed around the room, taking in the surroundings of his new lodgings.

A small table to the side with a chair, and a bed big enough to fit him, along with a bathroom and a window to see the view. Perfect. Kazuo was going to enjoy his time here, but after he went to the _onsen_. It was going to nice and warm, and he wasn’t going to be expecting any trouble there.

He quickly gathered his extra clothing, grabbed a towel from the bathroom and headed to the _onsen_ , while musing over the plans about getting the Icha Icha series. Maybe he can get someone knows the series well enough to tell him a brief summary about the series, it might help with his decision..

His eyes caught the sight of a red-haired someone who looked like a woman heading the same direction ahead of him. Oh, pretty. Red hair reminded him of someone else earlier, but his mind had already pushed the encounter in the lobby out and had resumed planning out his week.

He would never even remembered the person’s face, until he met them again.

So as he watched the person in front of him, assuming that the person was a girl, Kazuo noticed that they were near the _onsen_ and the men and women side _And the woman’s headed to the men’s side, too bad, wanted to meet her– Wait, what, men’s side–_

With a shriek of horror, he reached out to grab the woman’s shoulder with a hard grip and he was immediately assaulted by a punch and a kick, throwing him into the ground, a kunai was near his neck, body pressed against him as he stared back into hardened dark grey eyes.

Wait.

Wait.

Wait.

Wait.

What.

 _What_.

“Why the hell do you keep following me, asshole?” was the snarl that came out of the man’s mouth. Oh, oh, _oh_ . Oh Sage. _It was the man that he met in the lobby_. “Am I that interesting to you?”

“Hold it, _hime_ ,” Kazuo exclaimed, pushing the kunai away from his throat _That was about to slit my throat_ . “I was heading to the _onsen_ , too, okay? I thought you were a woman headed to the men’s side! Honest!”

“Don’t call me _hime_.” The man’s eyes then flickered with suspicion. “And why am I supposed to believe you?”

“Because you’re the most beautiful person I’ve met, _hime_ ,” he blurt out quite fast, before the man’s eyes widened with disbelief, a very cute blush spreading through his cheeks. It looked _adorable_. Then he reared back with a fist, his face completely straight and blank of emotion by then as he allowed his fist to fly.

Kazuo was met with a second punch to his nose that day.

 

* * *

 

He did not regret his actions.

Not one single bit did he regret it.

The bastard deserved it for calling him a _hime_ _again_. And for calling him beautiful.

Only when Natsuki glanced over at the silver-haired man did he feel a little bad. The man was sporting a colourful purple bruise on his face, while other men backed away from him when looking at his face.

Yeah, it was…. Not good, really.

Natsuki then swivelled his head around so the other man could not see his red face. It was _not a blush_ , it was _a face of suppressed anger_! Nothing more, nothing less.

He was also surrounded by _idiots_ . What kind of people would stare at him for Sage-knows-how-long in the _onsen_ ? Okay, Natsuki got it. He got that he looked like a female, he dressed a little like a female, and he was, and always will, be like a female. But does that really justify for people to _stare_ at him?

Cringing inwardly while glaring at his supposed admirers, Natsuki let out a suppressed sigh. He settled against the rocks behind him, trying to ignore most of the stares and….. _Why the hell are they having nosebleeds? Why are they staring at me like that?_

With a groan, he finally stood up and stormed over to the changeroom. He was not staying where people would be looking at him! Then a thought slid into his mind. A smirk carved itself into his lips as he began to softly cackle.

It would be an _excellent_ prank.

Meanwhile, Kazuo shivered from the chill that went down his back with several other men.

  
They won’t know what _hit_ them.


End file.
